Dent and four other Pennsylvania congressmen wrote a letter to Emmert last week, asking him again to restore the team’s scholarships and drop the remainder of the $60 million fine that was part of the 2012 sanctions. Dent said he released the letter because Emmert gave “simply inadequate and at times appalling” answers regarding previous concerns, primarily the fine’s distribution.

Dent also said that he has “heard rumors” that the NCAA, which reduced the scholarship sanctions last September, will revisit the bowl ban, which could make Penn State eligible for postseason play this year. Though Dent called the four-year bowl ban “excessive,” he said his primary focus remained on the scholarship reductions and fine.

“I wanted to put further pressure on the NCAA to reconsider the remaining scholarships being denied to students who, through no fault of their own, are being punished because of the heinous crimes of Jerry Sandusky,” Dent said.

An NCAA spokesperson said Monday that the organization had not received the letter and would not comment further on it. Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said at the conference’s football media days that he wanted to see the letter as well. Delany also praised former Penn State coach Bill O’Brien, former athletic director Dave Joyner and former President Rodney Erickson, saying they “met the challenge” of implementing the consent decree’s recommendations.

Penn State football coach James Franklin said he would not address a possible end to the bowl ban with his team because “I don’t want to be disappointed, and I don’t want our players to be disappointed.” Linebacker Mike Hull said the team, especially its seniors, would welcome being eligible for a bowl game this season.

“We all felt kind of slighted by everything that happened,” the senior said. “We really had no control of the situation, got some pretty harsh penalties, but we’re putting it behind us. … I’ve been to two bowl games, I’ve been very fortunate, and those were two of the best experiences of my life. It would be great to go back and end my career on a high note.”

Congressmen Glenn Thompson, Jim Gerlach, Michael Doyle and Mike Kelly also signed the letter, which was dated July 24. In it, the Pennsylvania lawmakers said that the NCAA’s consent decree, which Penn State signed in 2012, represented a “false choice” between the “heavy-handed and unwarranted sanctions” and the proposed football “death penalty.”

The congressmen also referenced a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruling in April that suggested the NCAA overstepped its authority in sanctioning Penn State after the Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal. Judge Anne E. Covey wrote that the NCAA, the governing body of college sports, may not have had the legal authority to force Penn State to sign the consent decree.

The decree, which followed Louis Freeh’s independent report that was critical of Penn State officials’ role in the Sandusky scandal, resulted in three major sanctions: a four-year bowl ban, scholarship reductions and the fine.

The NCAA last September announced a gradual reduction of the scholarships, citing Mitchell’s positive report concerning Penn State’s implementation of the Freeh Report’s recommendations. Mitchell said last fall that he could recommend further sanction reductions in the future. His next annual report is due in September.

Dent, a Penn State graduate, has been vocal in opposing the sanctions. The letter is the fifth he and other lawmakers have written to Emmert since 2012 regarding the scholarship reductions and the fine.

Last year, when the NCAA announced its scholarship-restoration plan, Dent and Thompson called for an immediate and full restoration. Dent also was critical of Emmert’s responses regarding the fine’s distribution.

In late 2012, Emmert wrote a letter to Dent saying that “at least” 25 percent of the Child Abuse Endowment, established to distribute the fine to organizations that prevent child sexual abuse, would be allocated to programs in Pennsylvania.

“That was a completely unacceptable, arrogant response to lawmakers who have the responsibility to appropriate money to education,” Dent said. “To simply be so cavalier regarding the distribution of those funds by an interstate trade organization was galling beyond belief to me.”

State Sen. Jake Corman has sued the NCAA to keep the endowment fund in Pennsylvania. In its April ruling, the Commonwealth Court dismissed the NCAA’s challenge to the Endowment Act, a 2013 state law designed to keep the sanction money in state. The lawsuit could go to trial in January.